Giant Norwegian fish farm company sues B.C.-based activist for defamation #SOPA

The #SOPA hashtag is a bit out there we admit... But not too far out there.. IOHO of course.. HG

By Sean Sullivan, Postmedia News January 8, 2012

VANCOUVER — Don Staniford has fought many battles in his 15 years of opposing salmon farming, from his days as a master of environmental science student in England to lobbying against farmed Atlantic salmon on British Columbia’s coast.

On Jan. 16, he’ll confront his latest challenge: a defamation lawsuit launched against him by Mainstream Canada, B.C.’s second largest farmed-salmon producer and the subsidiary of a Norwegian-based fish-farming behemoth.

It’s a battle he says he’ll fight until the bitter end.

“This is about justice for wild salmon and freedom of speech,” he told The Province on Sunday. “I think the Norwegian government [the largest shareholder in Mainstream’s parent company] has made a fatal error here.”

Mainstream’s lawsuit argues that Staniford’s Global Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture campaign uses “defamatory and false statements” intended to damage the salmon-farming industry and curb the World Wildlife Fund’s pending certification for farmed salmon.

“The fact that they’re suing me in the first place speaks volumes about.....    http://www.timescolonist.com/Giant+Norwegian+fish+farm+company+sues+based+activist+defamation/5964992/story.html